The Walking Dead: Azeroth
by TheKanon
Summary: The Lich King has fallen, but a for more dangerous threat emerges that plunges Azeroth into darkness. In this new world that is nothing like the old, the survivors must learn to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and live amongst the dead.


**DISCLAIMER: **The Walking Dead universe, terms and concepts belong to Robert Kirkman, AMC and their affiliates; I'm simply borrowing these ideas for this story. World of Warcraft and its terms and concepts belongs to Blizzard Entertainment. Original characters and plot devices of this story are of my own creation. No copyright infringement is at all intended.

**THE WALKING DEAD: AZEROTH**

**INTRODUCTION**

Despite the recent defeat of the Lich King, the Forsaken's plague testing has gone too far. After a failed experiment, a plague has been unleashed on the denizens of Azeroth the likes of which have never been seen before. The intelligent undead have been transformed into mindless creatures, attempting to devour any living being in their path, while the living transform into the same abominations upon death, whether from a bite or another cause. The mages of Dalaran, in a desperate attempt to stop the hordes of undead, used reckless magic until the ley lines themselves snapped and exploded from the strain. The spirits and demigods of the world- the Loa, Ancients, Dragonflights, Elements, Nature, and the Light- have all abandoned their charges on Azeroth; even the Burning Legion has destroyed the Dark Portal themselves in an attempt to distance themselves from the omnipotent plague. The world has been quarantined and abandoned in literally every sense. The living citizens of Azeroth must now fend for themselves in this new version of the world that nobody could have ever even dreamed about in their most darkest nightmares.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ZUL'KAHJO: Informally known as Kahjo, he was once a powerful troll witchdoctor of the Darkspear and a respected political ambassador for the Horde. He was visiting his brother in Sen'jin when the outbreak started, and fled with a group of villagers after his brother was killed and the village was overrun. He is now the only survivor from his group and has fled to Tanaris, where he hopes the isolation of the desert will help keep him alive.

TAHO RUNETOTEM: A tauren druid of the Runetotem tribe. He was on assignment in the Plaguelands during the outbreak, and was nearly killed by walkers when he found that his powers had failed him. Taho managed to escape and now hopes to head to the coast in order to get to Kalimdor, unaware that the outbreak had already occurred there as well.

PENNY FIZZSPROCKET: A goblin engineer based in Gadgetzan, who has been holed up there and surviving even after the rest of the residents have evacuated or died.

LILAH CARVER: A human mage who lost her powers when the ley lines exploded. Like other mages that weren't killed, the explosion left her permanently disabled; blind in one eye and nerve damage to the right side of her body. She managed to escape Stormwind and is heading towards the coast, where she hopes to find a way to get to an offshore island to survive.

GUREK IRONFIST: An orc soldier stationed at the Mor'shan Ramparts in Ashenvale when it was overrun by the walkers. After traveling on his own, he saved Elara and her son Tanril from a group of walkers in the Barrens; the three are now traveling south together.

ELARA SILVERWIND: A night elf civilian from Darnassus who fled through Ashenvale after the outbreak with her son, Tanril. They were nearly killed by walkers in the Barrens after they stumbled upon their shelter, but were saved by Gurek Ironfist. The three are now traveling south together.

TANRIL SILVERWIND: A very young pre-adolescent night elf boy, who is the son of Elara. He and his mother were nearly killed by walkers in the Barrens after they stumbled upon their shelter, but were saved by Gurek Ironfist. The three are now traveling south together.

(More to come as the story is updated)

STATUS OF THE WORLD

THE FORSAKEN: The Forsaken Apothecaries' obsession with creating plagues has gone too far; in a disastrous attempt to create their most potent plague to date, a mixing miscalculation caused a catastrophic explosion, obliterating most of Lordaeron and sending the now-befouled plague high into the atmosphere where it began to spread all over the Azeroth with alarming speed. Sylvanas herself was killed in the explosion. The Forsaken who were not in Tirisfall Glades or who survived the explosion were forever changed by the plague; losing their intelligence completely and turning them into savage, shambling corpses with an intent to devour anything living. As more and more forsaken were changed by the plague, they began turning on their unsuspecting Horde allies. The bite of a turned forsaken contains a lethal amount of plague, causing severe illness in their victim which kills them and reanimates them into the same monstrosity. These turned forsaken, and their victims who have also turned, were dubbed "walkers" by the Horde, although a variety of other names also exist.

THE SCOURGE: While no-one is exactly sure of what happened to the scourge, scout reports from Northrend in the early stages of the outbreak had indicated that the scourge, both intelligent and unintelligent, have suffered the same fate as their forsaken cousins. The same applies to the death knights of the Alliance and Horde- their magical aspects have completely left them, and they are now the same rotting, mindless, carnivorous shambling corpses.

OTHER UNDEAD: Nobody is sure how the plague has effected other types of undead such Nerubians, ghosts, ghouls, banshees, gargoyles, etc.

WALKERS VS. ZOMBIES: Walkers resemble the generic, necromancy-raised zombie in that they are decaying, shambling, mindless corpses with no resemblance of their former selves. They differ in a few ways, however: a normal zombie will try to attack any creature, living or undead, but will not attempt to devour it or continuously chase after it. It does not normally bite in combat, merely swinging its limbs and claws. A zombie also tends to be a more solitary creature, often lingering near the site of its reanimation or being that animated it. Walkers only attempt to attack and devour living creatures, both humanoid and animal. Their only form of attack is grabbing a target with their limbs and biting. Once a target is acquired the walker will pursue it endlessly until it is killed or the target manages to escape the walker's field of perception. A walker will shamble around aimlessly regardless of location or distance. Walkers do not regard each other but will sometimes be stimulated by each others' actions, often leading to a hive-mind, swarm-like state. This is when they are most dangerous.

It can be noted that a zombie will attack a walker if it wanders into its territory; however, the walker will continue ignore the zombie completely as it is not living, even if the zombie's attacks knock it down or damage it. It also must be noted that a zombie can be killed by damaging its body to the point where it's magical preservation properties dissipate. A walker has no such magical aspects; the plague controls the body through the brain of the deceased victim, and as such the walker can only be killed by traumatic damage to the brain. Arrows, bullets, and swords to any other part of the body will have no effect other than slowing it down.

THE LIVING: While the plague has an immediate effect on the Forsaken, it has a more subtle effect on the living humanoid races of Azeroth; the airborne plague infects the body, but lies dormant until the host is killed, where it then reanimates the body as a walker. The cause of death can be anything; whether it is from a lethal dose of concentrated plague from a walker bite, to an arrow through the heart.

THE HORDE: The Horde were the first to feel the wrath of the plague as their forsaken allies turned on them. The military was left in complete shambles as former forsaken soldiers wreaked havoc on bases and outposts. Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff, each housing forsaken, were left in chaos and residents fled out of the cities unprepared into the wilderness, where they succumbed to the elements, hostile creatures, or the undead that followed them. Thrall and Cairne Bloodhoof were holding a meeting in Grommash Hold at the time of the outbreak; they were forced to flee and their whereabouts are unknown. Sen'jin and the Echo Isles fell soon after. The blood elves in Silvermoon left relatively safe for a short time, barricading themselves inside the city, but many of the arcane-addicted elves died when the ley-lines exploded from the drastic counter-attack of the mages in Dalaran, leading to the fall of the city as the rest of the population was preyed upon by their reanimated brethren.

THE ALLIANCE: Varian Wrynn had heard of the explosion in Lordaeron and the turmoil in Kalimdor, and closed all ship ports and portals in the Eastern Kingdoms. Unbeknownst to him and the rest of the leaders of the Alliance, the airborne plague had already infiltrated their cities. Normal deaths turned even more deadly as the reanimated attacked the unsuspecting living, leading to a chain-reaction collapse of society. Jaina Proudmoore had spearheaded Dalaran's efforts to purge Kalimdor of undead, but died when overuse of powerful magic caused the ley-lines to explode. Varian, Anduin, and his close advisors barricaded themselves in the Keep as the city fell around them; their current status is unknown. Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage found themselves battling hordes of walkers streaming out of Silvermoon, but Darnassus inevitably fell; their status is also unknown. The Dwarves of Ironforge collapsed their own underground entrances in an effort to keep the dead out. It most likely has fallen.

THE STATE OF MAGIC: As mentioned previously, arcane magic has been completely unintentionally purged from Azeroth after an explosion of the magical ley-lines caused by unimaginable magical strain from thousands of mages in a combined effort to practically carpet-bomb the undead off Kalimdor. Divine magic is in a similar state. With the insofar unimaginable widespread death and destruction on Azeroth, the vast amount of spirits, gods and demigods of all life in the world could not tolerate the turmoil of millions upon millions of souls in anguish. In order to protect themselves from corruption, they systematically abandoned their mortal charges to their fate in order to find their own refuges in The Great Beyond. Because of this, no diviner on Azeroth- be it shaman, druid, or priest- has any means to access the powers they once had; Azeroth has literally become a spiritual black hole, vacated by the supernatural entities that had inhabited it since its creation by the Titans.

As nearly every society on Azeroth is derived from and relies on some kind magic, this sudden magical void has also served to wipe out many living beings, whether from the absence of a means of healing or defense, or the energies that had been intertwined with their own life essences for their entire lives.

OUTLAND AND THE BURNING LEGION: The situation on Azeroth became so bad that some chose to risk going through the Dark Portal and seek refuge in Outland. However, even the Burning Legion was fearful of what the powerful plague might do to them, having seen the effect it had on the powerful scourge. They destroyed the Dark Portal, preventing any mortal from crossing over, and incinerated all refugees. The Legion has since vowed to abandon its efforts on Azeroth and search for new worlds to take for themselves.

**A/N:** I love the post-apocalyptic drama of The Walking Dead, so I decided to take a unique approach to the Warcraft universe we all know and love. Please rate or comment! :) Actual story coming soon.


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